Stupid Thief...A never ending thread...The power of being friendly competitors...

[Uncle Fester]

Grapevines!!!

One of our local HMO's dispensary gives us a professional courtesy call "heads up" that they just got robbed of a significant number of high end (no surprise!) sunglasses. They describe the thief, his modus operandi (very specific brand names and lens features, how he distracts the staff etc.), and so now our area optical grapevine disperses the juicy details of what the guy looks like and his m.o.

Next day no less, who walks through our doors?

I'm at lunch so I can't be a hero (but reserve the right to be in future tellings of this story) and return to the shop with everyone in hyperdrive over what's happened.

911 gets called and the grapevine springs into action to be on the lookout for the thief.

With incredible chutzpah (or stupidity!) he decides to try his luck at a shop in the small town he hit yesterday not knowing we're on to him.

The owner, because we have a grapevine, has a heads up and delays the thief long enough so by the time he leaves he's stopped by the police nearby.

So--- Would you call your competition and be professional?

Be honest!

Stupid Thief!!!

[Paul Smith LDO]

Absolutely, we get information from other places when things are removed without payment up front. It has been some time since someone has come in and try to steal while I'm in the shop. Last time I caught somebody taking what belonged not to him, I grabbed the offender by his waistband, the scruff of neck and gave him the ye olde flying man out the door. There are occasions when you just have to go Old Testament.

[opty4062]

Absolutely, we have a wonderful relationship with the other private practices in our area.

[rbaker]

As an aside.

A long time ago in a land far away there was a section of downtown known as the eye care district. Inhabited by a half dozen ophthalmologist and a half dozen ethical opticians and even a few optometrists, we were all one big happy family. If someone was out sick or on vacation we sent over one of our opticians to cover. We all stuck to our knitting - the MD's practiced medicine, the opticians made the glasses and the contact lenses and the OD's did their thing. If there were a thief, tweeker or bunco artist working the neighborhood he was soon found out and everyone cooperated with one another in "taking care of the situation.".

Of course this was back in the day before the chains and vision care plans came to town and killed the goose that was laying all those golden eggs.

Most memorable was our gathering every Friday evening at 5:30 at The Brown Derby to toss back a few in the spirit of fellowship, getting boiled as an owl and then helping one another find our cars.

[Dustin.B]

I absolutely would and have in the past. In another time I managed a local firearms store and we made these kinds of calls nearly every week, though for other more legal reasons. Still it was and is a practice I continue to this day. We may be rivals but no one benefits from a serial thief.

[smallworld]

I worked at an optical that was robbed with no evidence. Not long after some young college boy came with all the missing frames. His story was him and some buddies were partying, walked by, shaking door handles and ours was unlocked. They screwed around, took some glasses. When he sobered up he realized returning the frames was a better idea than risking criminal charges. Moral of my story, make sure your doors are locked at night.

[Uncle Fester]

Good on him!!!

[Lelarep]

I think it would be wrong not to contact other local professionals and give them a heads up.

[mervinek]

make sure your doors are locked at night.

Reminds me of when I worked at a practice in a small local town. The cops at night would go around and check to make sure the businesses had their doors locked. One night they called our OD at midnight to let him know. (The cleaners forgot to lock up when done!). And yes... I would definitely let my local private offices know, as they have alerted us in the past!

[CME4SPECS]

We are all pretty good about notifying one another. It paid off for me a couple years back when I was notified of a shady character trolling opticals, she showed up at my place, I was on her like a bee on honey. She left in a hurry.

[smallworld]

My creepiest criminal was a man who was the firechief in a small town. His girlfriend and her daughter were waiting while he had an eye exam. She told me their apartment burnt down the night before. So they needed new glasses. Now she had to live with him. Turned out he lit the fire so he could "save" her. He got caught. Taught me to watch out for patients too.

[Dustin.B]

My creepiest criminal was a man who was the firechief in a small town. His girlfriend and her daughter were waiting while he had an eye exam. She told me their apartment burnt down the night before. So they needed new glasses. Now she had to live with him. Turned out he lit the fire so he could "save" her. He got caught. Taught me to watch out for patients too.

Wow! Talk about a burning love...

[mdeimler]

My creepiest criminal was a man who was the firechief in a small town. His girlfriend and her daughter were waiting while he had an eye exam. She told me their apartment burnt down the night before. So they needed new glasses. Now she had to live with him. Turned out he lit the fire so he could "save" her. He got caught. Taught me to watch out for patients too.

Many fires are started by firefighters. The whole hero complex is a weird thing. We most certainly need to have better access to mental healthcare.

[Lelarep]

While I agree with you, regarding better mental healthcare overall, in instances like the one above, it wouldn't have made any difference, these type of people don't think they're sick. It's part of the sickness itself.